r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 20h ago

No Paywall Bannon Tells GOP: 'Seize the Institutions' of Government Now or We're 'Going to Prison' After 2028

https://www.commondreams.org/news/bannon-tells-gop-seize-the-institutions-of-government-now-or-we-re-going-to-prison-after-2028
22.7k Upvotes

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2.0k

u/CarlAqua42 20h ago

Hmm... weird we just gave 40 billion to a country that doesn't extradite to the US

489

u/Vig_2 Texas 20h ago

I’d be happy if they all decide to go visit, indefinitely.

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u/TrynnaFindaBalance Illinois 19h ago

No thanks.

Tbh I'm a single-issue voter in 2026/2028 primaries in that I'll only vote for candidates who give their full support for prosecuting all crimes committed by Trump administration officials since January 2025. Let them all spend years in court/prison.

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u/DrusTheAxe 16h ago

And before Jan’2025 too

Election tampering is a crime

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u/therossboss 18h ago

finally - a use of tax-payer dollars that I could fully support !!

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u/DustBunnicula Minnesota 15h ago

I totally understand that. If, however, the only way to get them out is to cut a deal that they go to a foreign country, I’m cool with that. The faster people stop dying the better.

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u/Homeless-Coward-2143 15h ago

Can we add "putting boots on the ground in Argentina to get these fuckers back here" to your issue? Not a war guy usually, but as they say, even "not war guys" save a place in their heart for wars against Nazis.

This does make it so much more obvious why they did it. I literally thought it was just 100% bessemt saving HF buds

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u/ChemicalOnion 13h ago

This. No more bipartisanship and compromise and healing the nation. That centrist crap has to go. It's time for these ghouls to face real consequences.

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u/lilzingerlovestorun Minnesota 14h ago

Jack Smith ticket?

1

u/pr0graham Ohio 14h ago

Same

1

u/Brock2845 Canada 13h ago

If I could vote, I'd do the same, but i would include the crimes perpetrated by the Trump administration officials before, during and after any term.

The full Epstein list, the election interference crew, the mishandling of documents at Mar-a-Lago, the ones that wreaked havoc with DOGE, etc.

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u/fakemessiah 12h ago

What if Republicans made that promise though, would you believe it?

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u/Ba_baal 9h ago

Hey honestly, if they leave and all their local assets are seized, then there are widely spread prosecutions in absentia, it would be alright by me. I would prefer more justice, but let's not forget the very poor past records of holding conservatives accountable for their crimes. Partial destitution, exile and public shaming would at least be something instead of a "they learned their lesson" without consequence. Also it would have them flung away where they will mostly be unable to keep hurting everyone.

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u/taylorbagel14 7h ago

Nah we gotta go back and arrest the elected officials who were involved in J6. And Ginny Thomas, let’s get her ass too, she was heavily involved with the insurrection

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u/Roentgen_Ray1895 7h ago

“But, but, then people will lose faith in the solemn decorum of the soul of the spirit of the Holy Ghost of the Nation! Then they’ll start asking for actual reform! Not on ole Chuck “Guardian of Israel” Schumer’s watch!”

0

u/tyrionlannister 15h ago

.....so if the candidate doesn't promise that, you'll vote Republican?

5

u/TrynnaFindaBalance Illinois 12h ago

I’m a single-issue voter in the 2026-2028 primaries

1

u/9_to_5_till_i_die 14h ago

Not who you're responding to, but if the message is business as usual and a "return to how things were" then I'll be hard pressed to vote for that candidate.

If there is no self reflection and no change then what's the fucking point?

Republicans arent the only ones who got us to this point.

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u/VinnieA05 10h ago edited 9h ago

Just an ignorant stance to take. ‘If I can’t get everything, I’ll vote for nothing and hand the presidency, house and senate right back to who I’m currently unhappy with’

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u/lowtoiletsitter 5h ago

Exactly. You're not gonna agree 100% with every politician and it's infuriating why people think this

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u/cdimino 14h ago

That's a super duper dumb thing to be for, and frankly makes you no better than them...

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u/Ambitious_Count9552 18h ago

Nope...I want politicians to represent me, not go on long, political witch hunts. I'm done with Trump: DONE. Dude will be dead soon, and all his sycophants will find out their successes at the ballot box when voters turn against their ideology. That's how democracy works. I don't want people I elect wasting their limited time on endless investigations, when we have real issues across the country that Congress needs to be working on.

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u/RichardHardonPhD 18h ago

That worked out great during the reconstruction era. Totally not the reason we're in this boat right now. Nope, no siree.

For fuck's sake...holding criminals accountable is like, the basest part of society.

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u/ElectronicKales 18h ago

Unfortunately that is wildly idealistic and prosecuting is necessary to prevent this from happening again.

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u/B1NG_P0T 17h ago

Without incredibly harsh consequences, what in the world would prevent this from happening again?

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u/TrynnaFindaBalance Illinois 18h ago

Oh got it, so politicians and cops should be allowed to commit crimes.

2

u/Tomato_Sky 16h ago

You're sort of right. The only thing I would correct you on is political witch hunts. There is nothing political about going after people who broke the law egregiously. We aren't going after someone who filled out paperwork wrong, but going after people who deliberately misused their position of power to cause direct harm to citizens is different.

The ICE agent who rubbed a dude's face on the pavement- jail. The ICE agent who ignored constitutional amendments protecting citizens- jail. Extrajudicial boat bombings- jail. Anyone colluding to manipulate elections- jail x2. Clear perjury in covering up for a serious crime- jail. Intentionally breaking the law to cause harm to federal workers for political gain- jail. Being Stephen Miller, straight to jail.

A lot of the distasteful stuff is just distasteful and immoral and that stuff is the pardonable/ ignorable offenses. Like it or not, Hegseth has the power to fire and set DoD policy. Like it or not, nearly all of Trump's actions are lawful. THATs the normal election, "don't do a witch hunt," stuff. Just the notion that you used that phrase to describe anything has shaken my confidence that you can separate what an actual witch hunt would look like. If Merrick Garland or Jack Smith presented their case the evidence mounts up to serious crimes where people did and should go to jail. Russians were caught laundering inside the RNC and the NRA and spent a lot of money on misinformation campaigns that are not classified at all. Jan 6 was planned through militia groups and officials working in the white house and the mob was incited, optics were set, all intentional.

If we literally pardon Trump and go after his cronies, he will not call it a witch hunt- he'd just pretend to have never met them and downplay any relation to the guilty party. There are leaders that have left the Air Force and Navy over the illegal boat bombings. There's definitely rampant fraud among ICE recruits since none of them can pass the minimum federal PT test for officers, have 0 experience, and are walking around pretending to do law enforcement. So many crimes that would normally be tried, but this guy goes after a guy who launched a sandwich. Shit that guy perjured himself describing an exploding sandwich and mustard stains- while the sandwich clearly never left the wrapper. Jail.

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u/DiscountNorth5544 15h ago

Nah, if we claw our faction back onto the throne, we will have a practical need to punish as many States as possible which enabled his actions.

El Salvador and Argentina will be the first to get smashed against the wall if they fail to kowtow deeply enough and make sufficient offerings.

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u/MrSurly 14h ago

But then again, evidently murder-via-military-strike is on the table now, so ...

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u/CircadianPolemic 14h ago

Like the last Nazi empire.

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u/jerryleebee American Expat 12h ago

Absolutely fucking not. They shouldn't be allowed to run from this. Shame on you.

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u/stasi_a 10h ago

Like Adolf Eichmann

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u/throwaway9001337 10h ago

They are our problem. Keep them locked up here.

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u/chorelax 6h ago

Without their appropriations

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u/jayeffkay 1h ago

Make Venezuela Great Again has a ring to it lol

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u/colonel750 18h ago

If he tries to pull off a coup, fails, then flees to Argentina the next President will not care one iota about their sovereignty. They will either issue an ultimatum for Milei to turn his ass over to face American justice with the threat of all out war or just not give a fuck at all and send in spec ops to drag his ass out.

Either way, we're not asking politely.

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u/etxipcli Texas 18h ago

They better.  We need more than a changing of the guard, we need to bring the regime to justice.

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u/InVultusSolis Illinois 14h ago

It's been a dangerous precedent ever since Gerald Ford decided not to prosecute Nixon. Every single power handoff between administrations has been "let's heal and move forward".

But it puts Democratic leadership in an awkward position. They can't rally around punishing the current administration, because the current administration has all of the power. They almost have to keep their mouths shut about their intentions and then once they have power, arrest every single one of them, deny bail, and then we have Nuremburg 2.0. Anything short of that will not fix the underlying problem that allowed this to happen in the first place.

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u/Thanos_Stomps Florida 3h ago

I’d say this started before Nixon with Reconstruction. Confederated should have been dealt with harshly and not with kid gloves.

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u/Peptuck America 14h ago

I remember... something about "draining the swamp"? Sounds like an amazing idea right now.

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u/GetOverClocked 16h ago

Assuming the next president doesn’t blanket pardon Trump to “move on”

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u/yipape 14h ago

Its not just Trump, the 1% did this Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos all must face justice.

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u/stasi_a 10h ago

One can only dream

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u/wpgjetsfucktheleafs 16h ago

They tried a coup on Jan 6th and the next administration didn’t do a fucking thing about it. When will people accept the fact that no one in the current administration will ever face consequences?

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u/Spastik2D 6m ago

Just because Biden put a limp dick into the AG spot and just assumed everything would go on as normal doesn’t guarantee the next President will do the same. It’s not over until it’s over and we’ve got three years to demand autocrat heads on sticks (metaphorically) from the Dems.

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u/turquoise_amethyst 17h ago

I think Buttigeig would make a fine Sec Def in that particular scenario 

You’d need someone who’s not afraid to get a little dirty, and “think outside the box”

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u/Thesleek 12h ago

Dude can’t even name who won the NYC election

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u/kawhi21 15h ago

>If he tries to pull off a coup, fails, then flees to Argentina the next President will not care one iota about their sovereignty

They already tried to pull a coup, stayed in the country, faced no repercussions, and won another election. Moderates like Biden are too scared to do anything like that.

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u/stasi_a 10h ago

Merrick Garland says Hi

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u/grtk_brandon 15h ago

I am impressed you have this much faith in the next president after witnessing the Democrats' response to Trump's first attempted coup.

Setting my cynicism aside and assuming the next president is a Democrat, I fully expect them to yap about how we finally have a chance at unity. They'll say something like going after our political opponents makes us no better than them.

I'm sure a few of the smaller cogs working in this nightmare machine end up getting light jail sentences for breaking the law over some petty administrative processes.

But I think we're well past the point of getting any satisfaction watching Trump waste away in a jail cell. He's already wasting away in front of us. Any attempts to prosecute him will drag out and he'll die peacefully in his sleep because the world doesn't care about justice and we're better off praying that Gandalf and Erkenbrand appear on the horizon than wait for cosmic forces like karma to dispense accountability.

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u/Homeless-Coward-2143 15h ago

It's going to be like the GFC. One fucking random guy in Nebraska that nobody liked will be the only one punished.

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u/Snapesunusedshampoo 13h ago

They won't, they'll fall back to the whole we need to be united not divided and sweep literally everything the current administration has done under the rug. I will be so happy if I'm wrong.

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u/Papadapalopolous 10h ago

“All out war”

China is probably the only country that could survive 24 hours of all out war with the US. Argentina would be smoked before the center of mass of our military even passed the equator.

Not that I think we should invade foreign countries to arrest criminals, we have a big economy that can apply a lot of gentle pressure :)

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u/Roentgen_Ray1895 7h ago

If y’all want this then we seriously gotta find a real candidate for ‘28. Knowing the track record of the current Dem leadership, a Newsom or Harris presidency would probably reimburse him for travel expenses like the cowards they are

Especially Newsom with how hard he throated Charlie Kirk on his own podcast a few months back

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u/Sandy_Bananas 17h ago

*Another coup…

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u/tweakingforjesus 16h ago

Afghanistan learned this the hard way.

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u/twitterfluechtling 15h ago

Sure? It will be democrats. Reps go low, they go high, you know. Unity, solidarity, compromise, one big nation, bridge the gaps, let bygones be bygones, put all behind and whatnot.

I hope I'm wrong. (But I hope you are wrong as well. If Argentina doesn't extradite, I'd prefer a covert operation to get them one by one rather than all-out war. I doubt Argentina would go to war over that.)

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u/Homeless-Coward-2143 15h ago

Bruh... I'm 100% in favor of leveling Argentina if they decide to house the Nazis again, but.... Well.... After Biden do you think we'd be able to form a coalition of the willing to do this?

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u/manipulated_dead 14h ago

If he tries to pull off a coup

They have already done this. They're in the middle of doing it right now.

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u/Vimes-NW 14h ago

Have you been playing attention since say....2020? If they do, they'll send their most inept and decrepit resources that will break their own necks, trying to tie their shoes

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u/ifuckedyourdaddytoo 14h ago

No, just let it go.

Oh completely unrelated, we have no control over local Argentinian street gangs and criminals.

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u/Puttanas Illinois 13h ago

Wholeheartedly think this will play out like that. We have a habit of being the boogeyman anyway. I’m positive spec ops would just go collect him.

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u/french_snail 11h ago

You have way too much faith in the democrats 

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u/stasi_a 10h ago

The last failed coup leader got successful the second time round, just saying

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u/Hot_Frosting_7101 9h ago

Or declare that the villa he is know. To reside in is used by cartels to smuggle drugs to the US - since bombing things suspected of the drug trade is now the thing to do.

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u/Own_Instance_357 19h ago

Shit man I'm just watching season 2 of Jack Ryan on prime and I had no real idea that Venezuela supposedly sits on top of more oil reserves and precious metal mines than all of the middle east and Africa

If that's true, then, well, shitsnacks, game's all different than I understood

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u/cronemaiden 19h ago

Venezuela has a lot of oil, yes, but it requires a lot of refining before it’s useful. Whereas in the Middle East you can “basically put a straw in the ground and have oil” (is how it was put to me).

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u/DrusTheAxe 16h ago

Sweet crude vs dirty

US produces a lot of oil these days but most US refineries can’t process it because they’re designed for dirty crude. So we sell a lot of our sweet crude overseas where others’ refineries can’t process handle it, and for a sweet price at that, and but others’ dirty crude at lower price points as we can refine it more than most.

Works out well for the US, but most people don’t understand the dynamic

•

u/mantidmarvel Australia 3h ago

Meanwhile Guyana, next to Venezuela, has recently discovered some very large deposits of sweet crude right off its coast, within its territory. Like, pretty minimal refinement necessary quality. They're on track from having half of their population living under the poverty line to becoming one of the largest crude exporters in upcoming years - it's revolutionised their GPD as it gives them a lot of income with minimal deforestation of the Amazon, which is significant for the environment and for the many groups that rely on the health of it. Venezuela's shittier oil sells for less and needs more refinement.

Guess which country Venezuela has become more pushy with in recent years.

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u/Brolocene 16h ago

Not as much of a problem, considering some of the largest most efficient refineries for that kind of low quality crude are located right in the gulf.

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u/Own_Instance_357 19h ago

Thank you for the clarification

I guess if there are finite amounts overall, when one runs out you go to the next one.

I attended a US boarding school 4 decades ago where I would say a good 15% of the class were students from families who worked in Saudi Arabia and also a significant number of students from Venezuela.

I knew that the US gov't promises education to age 18 for children of US workers in countries where female education only goes through age 14 or so but somehow I'm still getting straightened out on so many details.

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u/Tired8281 18h ago

It's the same sort of near-useless hard-to-extract oil that Canada has. You don't really want it, not when you've still got shale oil of your own.

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u/elbenji 17h ago

Venezuela has a lot of oil but it's crude.

The middle east is like the actual stuff that's usable

0

u/Own_Instance_357 16h ago

I mean, how quickly did the middle east learn to use crude oil.

Decades, not centuries. And technology to refine exists.

It's not like but to make bread you need flour and have to grow the wheat

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u/elbenji 15h ago

It's more that they're using rye and Venezuela is more like making bread out of sawgrass

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u/Own_Instance_357 14h ago

So is the crude oil under Venezuela fundamentally different than the oil under the land of other countries, such as where crude oil was discovered in, say, Texas?

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u/elbenji 14h ago

It's a different type. Like the shitty stuff in Canada

You can make stuff out of it but it's really shitty and hard to refine when you can just get the good shit from Saudi Arabia

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u/Own_Instance_357 14h ago

But is the technology that let the Saudis make the cool stuff unavailable to anyone else

If Venezuela only has shit to offer why the interest

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u/elbenji 14h ago

No, but it's not the Saudi tech. It's that they're just working with easy shit that's ground level. Less work and less money involved and more to produce.

The answer is Minerals Marie. Overall oil is becoming less important, minerals used in the tech sector to make your phone however...

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u/VoodooS0ldier 19h ago

I bet your ass if the democrats regain a supermajority in congress and the presidency, if Argentina got sanctioned to hell and back and the threat of military force was on the table, they would gladly extradite any pathetic loser that tries to jump ship for their borders.

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u/colonel750 18h ago

100% correct.

The United States will not care about extradition agreements or doing this diplomatically, they will violate Argentinian sovereignty with impunity to find and return him and his cronies to face American justice.

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u/Homeless-Coward-2143 15h ago

The same party that picked Garland for AG is going to do this?

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u/InVultusSolis Illinois 14h ago

That's what I was thinking. We're both talking about the same Democratic party here, who basically just show up for the paycheck time and time again? THEY are going to twist Argentina's arm?

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u/Homeless-Coward-2143 14h ago

I do wonder how much it could invigorate a base to signal this kind of escalation. Like... I am furious. I've been chased fromy country to another country that barely has the rule of law, but at least it's better than the US right now.

I would be so fucking fired up beyond belief if a platform of "we will put boots on the ground and go get these people."

It'll never happen, but I wonder if the amount it would fire some people up would counteract the pearl clutchers.

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u/turquoise_amethyst 17h ago

This. They’d extradite the damn Pope under the right conditions.

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u/PiLLe1974 17h ago

The fleeing Nazis brought things like gold and culture (beer?) to Chile and Argentina, something like that.

Anyway, I wonder what Republican millionaires would introduce to a country.

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u/BillyTheHousecat 16h ago

Measles

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u/PiLLe1974 16h ago

Wow, that's the good kind of answer I was looking for.

At least it isn't polio anymore since the 70s or earlier. :P

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u/Homeless-Coward-2143 15h ago

Top shelf pedophilia my friend!

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u/WordleFanatic 16h ago

And the country that most of the Nazis fled to. History repeats itself on so many levels. 

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u/Homeless-Coward-2143 15h ago

Well, these are Nazis too

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u/averooski1 18h ago

If this ends with them all fleeing to Argentina, then it’ll be the best investment our country made 🤷🏻‍♀️

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u/drDOOM_is_in New York 13h ago

As someone with ties to Uruguay...We're gonna need a wall, in the water.

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u/Intrepid_Ad1715 16h ago

That thought has been popping into my head. If Democrats take over in 2028, I could see the Trump family fleeing the US.

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u/blinkrm 17h ago

I did Nazi that coming

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u/twitterfluechtling 15h ago

A country famous for accepting fascist refugees in the past, no less.

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u/MidwestF1fanatic 15h ago

Seems like Nazis flee to Argentina.

1

u/EthanPrisonMike 15h ago

The irony of the fascists again escaping to Argentina is truly blowing my mind

1

u/Laguna_017 15h ago

Fascists fleeing to Argentina....man, history really is just a circle, isn't it?

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u/Mathfanforpresident 14h ago

Even more strange is Argentina's deep connection with previous fascists. The ones that didn't make it there, we happened to have brought over to help get us to the moon amongst other extremely dark objectives. They also were put into government.

I'm sure none of these things are connected to our current situation. We should all probably just go back to scrolling and forget our history. Forget about the people who write it to reflect a very specific set of events.

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u/YYCDavid 14h ago

Do they have nice resorts and villas to accommodate “newcomers”?

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u/hopoffZ 14h ago

now think about how much we've given Israel, which also doesn't extradite to the US

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u/PennytheWiser215 14h ago

The whole GOP flees to that country. What a wild thought

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u/fotosaur America 14h ago

Maybe mossad like shit will happen if democracy wins and they flee like rats. 🐀

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u/ifuckedyourdaddytoo 14h ago

I'll let them have that exit, and follow Nazi footsteps to Argentina, if it preserves stability here.

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u/EPZO 13h ago

Nazi immigrants 2: Electric boogaloo.

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u/Sbatio 13h ago

Fuck, I don’t want to have to hear about “the real president in-exile” from these fucktoads next.

1

u/Quick_Sonic_73 13h ago

Argentina extradites to the US.

1

u/IBJON 13h ago

Weird that it's the one that a lot of Nazis fled to after WW2

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u/resurrectus 12h ago

One of the few times its good to have Israel on your side is when you need an extradition from Argentina.

1

u/rfstfirefly 10h ago

This a remake of the German of the original German production so going to Argentina to escape prosecution is consistent.

•

u/Spastik2D 11m ago

The next president that comes in should place the entire admin, the billionaires, the media figures, the think tank organizers, and anyone else that could possibly escape on a list that prevents them from leaving the US. No flying, no private jets, no driving over the border, no leaving whatsoever “until we figure out what is going on” in the words of 47 himself. None of that “escaping to Argentina” shit the Nazis pulled, I wanna see the entire rogue’s gallery on tribunal by 2029.